Brother Peaches
Character History Pre-Life with Lamarr Brother Peaches was born Sluggy King to a Belgian Mother and uncertain father - on his birth certificate, under 'Father's name', his mother had written 'some soldiers'. Sluggy attended the City 14 college of Art, where he met his life-long friend Sparkle Cow. Sluggy spotted a hand-written advertisement for Eli Vance's Commune on the common room notice board there, and enticed by the promise of an extended family to replace his absent father he persuaded Sparkle Cow to hitch-hike to White Forest with him to spend Summer there. Eli Vance welcomed them warmly and gave Sluggy the name 'Fragrant Peaches' and Sparkle Cow the name 'Sparkle Cow'. They whiled away a happy Summer there until the Free Children's massacre. Book Two: The Free Children's Commune Brother Peaches was a resident of the Free Children's Commune at the time of the arrival of Isaac Kleiner and Barney Calhoun. Unlike most of the other residents, who were solely interested in sleeping and experimenting with recreational drugs, Peaches took a more proactive view of world peace and universal love and was the main protest sign artist in the group, often painting dozens of signs in a single day and creating no less than 3,542 signs throughout his short career. Although his spelling was questionable due to his poor education (for example, he designed the welcome signs displayed in White Forest for the group, on which Commune was spelt 'Comune') his enthusiasm never flagged. Peaches was the first member of the group to spot the approach of the Combine and immediately sought out Eli Vance for advice. Vance, merely buying time to launch Kleiner's flying machine and his bomb, encouraged Peaches to meet the Combine and offer them love in accordance with the principles of the Commune. Peaches agreed, despite his personal fears. Most of the Free Children has deserted the Commune immediately on learning of the approach of the Combine, but the few that remained were swayed by Peaches' speech reminding them of their promise to promote free love and by Sparkle Cow's support, although this support was prompted more by affection and loyalty rather than Sparkle Cow understanding exactly what was going on. Under Peaches, the little group met the Combine in a clearing unarmed and offered friendship. Curious, Wallace Breen ordered his strike force to hold fire, at which point one of the Combine soldiers deserted his post and ran to join the Free Children lured by their promise of fellowship and love. Breen ordered this soldier to be shot, which he immediately was and his blooded corpse collapsed into Brother Peaches' arms, destroying an almost messianic moment for Peaches himself. Breen, from ennui, now ordered the slaughter of the group and the combine immediately opened fire. Peaches escaped the initial hail of gunfire and took refuge behind their protest sign with Brother Bluebell. Consumed with rage, in his last moments Peaches rejected Eli's teachings of free love and counter-attacked with the sign, fracturing the skull of one Combine soldier with it before he and Brother Bluebell were both cut down in a burst of machine-gun fire. Although Peaches' career was rather brutally cut-off at that point, his final rejection of the Free Children's credo and his last words stayed with Sparkle Cow, the sole survivor of the massacre, and ultimately led to the destruction of Eli Vance's schemes. Trivia *The model for Brother Peaches is a re-skin of a Half-Life 2 'refugee' and comes from the Mod game 'Zombie Master'. *Brother Peaches was loosely based on 'Sluggy', the long-term boyfriend of 'Maniac', artist of the A Girl on the Server webcomic and alter-ego of Sparkle Cow. This is reflected in his real name 'Sluggy King', although it was never spoken by any of the characters in Life with Lamarr. The name is also a small reference to artist Andrew Kepple, who was known as 'King Sluggy' in internet days of yore. *In the episode Love and Bullets, the 'halo' effect for Peaches in panel 14 was created by spawning a lamp and freezing it in position directly behind Brother Peaches' head.